


My curse was you (and my blessing is us)

by moonkevin



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Also Stan verkwanchan and stream hit, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst, Familiars, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Witch Curses, Witches, chan as an otter is the only reason why i wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 13:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20292547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonkevin/pseuds/moonkevin
Summary: As the boy rushes along the candle-lit hallways of Pledis Academy for Magic Police and Agents, navigating the maze-like corridors using the mind map he had formed throughout his first two years at the Academy. His mop of barely presentable caramel brown hair bounces with every step he takes, and his red-and-black plaid hoodie swings from side to side as it clings in to his frame. While most of the time, packages are normal for students, be it presents from friends, or supplies from home. This particular one though, was special to Chwe Hansol Vernon. His sister, Sofia, has notified him of it before it arrived, but refused to give him any info beyond that. Vernon was curious, to say the least.





	My curse was you (and my blessing is us)

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhhh I found this in my old drafts and discovered it was an unbetaed old fic! One of my firsts actually, and I’m kind of cringing as I read back. I didn’t want to fully re edit it just to keep a copy of my old works, so this will stay un beta-ed.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! And follow me @sunshinekitcat on twt for more fics in the future!!!

_Ding ding ding_

“—and that’s class. Your assignments are due by next Friday.” The scraping of chairs and clanking noises of computers being put away fills up the lecture hall. Light sounds of chatter bounces of the willow walls, and the bright sunlight fades to nothing outside of the hall.  
Willow. A young boy thinks. One of the best building materials for magical studies, absorbing and cleansing, yet still incredibly resistant to spells—

A pencil drops and a loose air current from the door blows it against the walls.

—and school supplies, the boy notes with amusement. The boy picks up his laptop bag and binder, glides out of the room effortlessly on the stray air currents. Earlier in class, he had received a text from his childhood friend and next door neighbour, Hong Jisoo. Apparently, a package had came for him and Jisoo had dropped it off in front of his room.

As the boy rushes along the candle-lit hallways of Pledis Academy for Magic Police and Agents, navigating the maze-like corridors using the mind map he had formed throughout his first two years at the Academy. His mop of barely presentable caramel brown hair bounces with every step he takes, and his red-and-black plaid hoodie swings from side to side as it clings in to his frame. While most of the time, packages are normal for students, be it presents from friends, or supplies from home. This particular one though, was special to Chwe Hansol Vernon. His sister, Sofia, has notified him of it before it arrived, but refused to give him any info beyond that. Vernon was curious, to say the least.

“Hey! Vern! You got a—“  
“I got the text hyung, I know.” Jisoo chuckles.   
“I can tell. You’re running like a mad man.” Vernon rolls his eyes and pushes the door to his dorm room open. Picking up the package in his free hand, Vernon brings it in and drops it on his bed. The young wizard tears the packaging open, throwing the paper stuffed in it I the wastebasket next to his bed. Then, he pulled out his wand and mutters a quick spell to unlock the charm on the packaging to access the contents. Digging his hands in, he feels a hard cover. This means it’s a book. Vernon likes books, so he chuckles.  
“Really Sofia? A b—“ He starts before seeing the cover. 

There’s a rough, bonelike engraving around the book, and absolutely no title anywhere to be found. Magic and the scent of old paper leaks out of the book, and the book seems to be shaking in Vernon’s hand, daring him to open it. Of course, Vernon could already tell what it is, a spell book covered in dust, in a cover of blue and white, with engravings that stinks of magic. He wants to be sure though, so Vernon takes the book and goes knocking for his best friend.

-

“Oh hi.” Vernon widens his eyes and squeaks. He expected Jisoo, small framed and shortish, gentle and lanky. He’s instead greeted by his boyfriend, Choi Seungcheol, a humongous giant of a man. Vernon considers his options. On one hand, he could run back home and ask about the grimoire later. On the other hand, the person in front of him looked so intimidating, his feet seemed to be glued down.   
“Um, is Jisoo home right now?” Vernon manages to squeak and stammer. Seungcheol smiles and shakes his head. Vernon lets out a shaky nod and scampers off with a high-pitched ‘never mind then. Have a nice day.’

Of course, his luck doesn’t allow it.

“Hey, is that a grimoire?”   
“Um, no it’s just a book. The style of he cover is like that.” Vernon lies, feeling his palms get sweaty. Seungcheol seems to buy it though, and lets him go. Vernon watches as the door closes, heaving a big sigh.

At least I know that it’s definitely a grimoire. Vernon thinks. Shrugging of the fear he harboured towards Seungcheol, Vernon returns to his dorm. Seeing the stack of homework on his desk, the male sighs.

The odd gift will have to wait, Vernon’s got homework to do.

-

_Click click click _

Somewhere within a dimly lit room, there lies a book.

_Click click click_

A laptop is open next to it, used by a quick pair of hands resisting and ignoring the curiosity eating it’s owner.

_Click click click_

The book vibrates, spilling even more magical energy. After all, grimoires are not meant to be ownerless for long, and the closest person to it is currently refusing to claim ownership.

_Click click click_

A pink and blue aura of energy radiates from the book’s cover. It covers the book and contains the leaking magic. A basic spell for dimension jumping witches, as it’s a simply a shield that works like an umbrellas. It’s not intended to last long, so the spell’s caster simply lets it crumble gradually.

_Click click—_

_BOOM_

The noise of the keyboard clicking stops as the person using it halts his hands. The shielding aura has finally broken, and fragments of spell dust scatters across the desk. Vernon sighs. 

Pushing his homework and laptop aside, he moves the grimoire in front of him.   
“Okay you little troublemaker, what do you want.” The book, unsurprisingly, didn’t verbally answer. Instead, the latch on the side of the book pops open by itself. Taking in a deep breath, Vernon flips the book open. It’s filled with advanced and complicated spells he’s only ever seen his mother and father use, and that’s because they’re top-tier wizards. The majority of the spells contain ingredients from the other worlds and dimensions, making Vernon feel chills as he realizes why the book so invitingly let him open it. 

Dimension travellers are rare, the genes only lining up it pristine conditions, and it doesn’t pass down through blood. Realizing what it meant, Vernon gulps and flips closer to the last pages. At the end half of the book though, are empty pages. An unfinished grimoire, Vernon smirks, this means I have space to make it mine. Technically, he would and should have handed the book in to faculty and the staff. But, the fact that his younger sister had sent it to him with no note or explanation meant she didn’t want the authorities to see it, and Vernon is way too good of a big brother to snitch on her.

He finally moves on to the back and finds a note written in stardust in the back. Another safety precaution, Vernon muses. Stardust meant only the person who had written it and the people it was intended to be read by could read it. He skips the note, putting it aside to read later, prompting to take a closer look at the pencil sketch on the next two pages. Wait a second, the edges of the drawing—

Vernon sucks in a breath. Ashwood dust, he realizes. Ashwood, special species. The plant grows and thrives in environments with extreme hate or fear. It’s dust is known to be used in extremely advanced, dangerous and illegal curses, Vernon thinks with fear. Tearing his eyes from the dust, Vernon finally takes in the big picture. There’s two drawings, an otter and a quokka, both facing each other in poses that looked like they were trying to claw their way out of the book. Frantically, Vernon flips back to the page with stardust on it. As soon as he starts reading, he recognizes Sofia’s handwriting, and is even more scared as to why the book was sent to him.

-

_Once upon a time,_

_There lived two wizards. Except the wizards weren’t the trained kind or the one with insufficient magical circuits. No, these two wizards are special, as they possess the rare quality of possessing too many magic circuits. Their parents decided they needed to be treated and trained differently from the other kids, so they were sent to one of the most powerful wizards in the world. His name was Lee Woojin, and he has a special apprenticeship program dedicated to training children with too many magic circuits. But like any good villain, he had a different plan in mind when taking in these children. _

_Anyone who had “graduated” from the program describes it as ‘a living hell’. Living conditions were bad, death rates were high, and the people coming out of it usually became circuit-less, but they were at least alive. Despite this, the parents had no choice. The other option was to kill the child, and if there was a chance for the child to be saved, the chance must be taken. After all, excess use of magic with extra circuits usually led to death, as even the magic the courses through the child’s veins is poisonous due to the large dosage. _

_Despite all the hardships, the two wizards in this story found a way to make it through with their weird circuits and sanity intact. They found comfort and friendship in each other, and quickly, Woojin had developed extreme jealousy of the two children. Together, they preformed spells and rituals that would normally kill and extremely mutilate the casters. Their disadvantage became an advantage as they breezed through and mastered all of the magic types. So the night before the children—now adults—were supposed to graduate, Lee Woojin hatches his plan._

_He had drugged the wizard’s food at dinner, dulling their reflexes and stifling their magical capabilities. Then, when everyone else is asleep, he snuck into their room and cursed the two wizards, forcing them to become masterless familiars. Unfortunately for Woojin, the wizards noticed his presence, and retaliated. They couldn’t reverse the curse, but they managed to wriggle out and formed spirit-like creatures to roam the earth, bound together by friendship and love. To Woojin, they were still alive, and that made him furious. He channeled his fury and anger into a search. He closed up the program, setting out on a quest to find the two elusive spirits. He never disappeared though, just stayed at his mansion, knowing the spirits wouldn’t dare to run to a different town. Then he waited. He waited until the wizards continue their research, casting spells and charms to try and form a human appearance._

_They resurfaced later. But not in the way anyone expected._

_A few years later, a young boy with special talents was playing by himself in his preschool’s sand box. He was humming a tune to a song no one knew, content with the fascinating sounds and wonders he saw in the same place under different dimensions. He was a dimension traveller, and his magic was already developing. From afar, a group of other boys approached the little boy—and pushed him. The dimension traveller fell backwards, nearly swallowing a mouthful of sand._

_“H-Hey!” The boy said, trying to sit up. He was pushed down again, this time by magic. The bullies laughed and laughed as they inflicted curse after curse on the small boy. Right when the boy was near tears and the bullies were about to give him the strongest curse that knew, a gigantic pink-and-blue bubble surrounded the boy, blocking out all the spells and helping his cuts and bruises up quickly. The boy watched in amazement as two animals of a faded blue colour stood in front of him. The boy learned from the oldest bully later that the animals were a quokka and an otter. The animals pounced o. The bullies, using familiar magic to drive them away, then they dropped the shield and licked at the boy’s injuries._

_“Thank you.” The boy had said to them. The animals seemed to understand, as they nodded their little heads. The boy looked at them for a second, then hardened his expression in determination.  
“You saved me today. So I promise I’ll save you someday, okay?” The quokka seemed to rolled his eyes and the otter seemed to smile brightly. From that day on, the boy made two wonderful friends for his entire life._

_That is, until they disappeared._

_The boy was devastated. He had lost two constants in his life, and years and sadness overcame him, until he learned to use it to harden himself. His friends were in trouble, and he made a promise to them when he first met them._

_Time to fulfill your promise, big brother._

_Love,  
Sofia _

To say Vernon was confused would be like saying the sun is hot.

How the ever loving fuck is he supposed to do that?

-

Sometime in the middle of the night, a sleeping figure throws his body back and forth on his bed. Cold sweat drips down his statue-like face, and his shaking arms nearly vibrates the bed.

Darkness. Darkness everywhere. But then there’s light. A flash of something blue flashes. Ashwood leaves blow by and suddenly—

-

_Vernon’s standing in front of an old mansion. Not just any old mansion, as Vernon remembers it. It belongs to one the most dangerous and powerful wizard in the world, Lee Woojin. The night sky is starless, as even the stars are afraid of Woojin. A cold breeze blows by, and Vernon’s dream form notices a blue hue to the wind. Gradually, the breezes materializes, and two blue figures appear. Except they’re in the grip of a hooded and cloaked figure. The figure unlocks the door and in a small flash of light from a struggling otter, Vernon sees the figure’s face. It’s Woojin, and the two animals in his hands are the two animals Vernon grew up befriending. This meant that the two creatures weren’t animals at all. Thinking back to all the times Vernon had let them see him change suddenly made him VERY self-conscious, but that’s unrelated at the moment._

_Suddenly, the scenery shifts, and Vernon’s standing in the middle of a candle-lit room. Woojin has the two spirit animals in a ghost wood cage. This means they’re trapped, and any spells against spirits are at least twice as effective. Vernon screams, but no sound comes out. He tries to run, to desperately claw at the cage to rescue his childhood guardians. He feels a strange feeling as Woojin walks through his dream body. His stomach clenches up as he sees the grimoire in Woojin’s hands, the same one sitting on his desk in the real world. Seeing the small pouch in Woojin’s hand doesn’t help, as Vernon’s poor Sym-speech tells him it’s Ashwood. Woojin has a dagger in his other hand, stabbed in the grimoire and upon closer inspection, Vernon can tell that it’s Malice Silver, a Weapon used for killing spirits. Vernon tries to help the spirits. He moves his entire body but his feet are glued in place. He screams again, but it’s fruitless. Woojin pulls the dagger out of the book, leaving a scar o the grimoire behind. While this means the grimoire won’t be bonded to him anymore, the old wizard doesn’t seem to care as he sliced the spirits in one fell sweep. A bright light flashes and suddenly the world is dark again. Dark, and so, so cold..._

-

Vernon springs up. Glancing at his clock, he finds that it’s 3AM. He doesn’t have any classes tomorrow, due to it being Saturday. Might as well get to work then, seeing as Vernon can’t go back to sleep anyways.

_Hang in there guys, I’m coming._

-

As he sits down on his knees, Vernon ticks off a mental checklist. He’s set up a summoning circle using firedust, water essence, willow bark and clay. While that would usually be enough to summon familiars, Vernon’s case required more. After reading, rereading, practicing and preparing a curse-breaker spell from the grimoire, Vernon’s set out to build himself a magic supply. His own circuits, albeit powerful due to his type of magic, wasn’t enough. Using another spell from the grimoire, Vernon built two gates to a dimension known to the book as ‘Mane Pool’. As much as the name sucked, it was very good at explaining what it was. With the loop of energy Vernon connected between the portal on either side of him, the mana flowing from one portal to the other should go by him, feeding him magic as he casts the spell.

Please work, Vernon silently prays. Taking in a deep breath, he starts chanting. The circle glows, changing colours as it sucks magic from Vernon. The loop feeds him, but it’s not like he needs it to preform the first part of the ritual. Slowly but surely, Vernon reaches the end of the spell. Flipping open the grimoire to the drawings, Vernon tosses it into the circle. Switching to the curse breaker spell almost immediately, Vernon feels his body growing weak. The young wizard-in-training grits his teeth to push on, the loop of magic doing its best to sustain him. Slowly, two vague figures start to form, but Vernon can’t make out what the figures were. Now came the moment of truth.

If Vernon’s hypothesis that he has these two as his familiars, the spells should be able to pull them out of the book. If not, they’ll still be stuck but Vernon would at least get his familiar. His eyes start to droop, fluttering close as he drifts in and out of consciousness. Come on, Vernon screams internally, just a little more. He gathers all the energy and magic he has left, and in on final push, forces the spell into the book. Suddenly, the room returns to a quiet state, absorbing the warm sunlight from the distant sunrise as the body of an exhausted wizard lays limp on the floor.

-

“—what if he doesn’t remember us?”  
“I’m pretty sure no one would nearly kill themselves to save someone they don’t remember.” The hushed tones of a conversation stirs Vernon awake. His body is numb, and while he doesn’t know why, he’s grateful. Feeding your body magic tends to cause intense pain a few hours later. Vernon strains his ears to listen to the conversation, his eyelids still seemingly glued shut. Using every muscle available to him at moment, Vernon forces his eyes open.  
“Yeah but what if he’s just really nice.”  
“Channie, he’ll remember us, stop worrying.” 

“Worry about what?” Vernon asks innocently, noticing how raspy his voice is. He opens his eyes now, and immediately concludes that he must be dead. There’s two angels in front of him, and they both look like the most adorable things this world has ever known. The one to the left had cute little chubby cheeks and blond hair. He’s wearing a white hoodie and white jean. His expression seemed to be in a mix of relief and concern, and his mouth seemed to be shaped in a cute pout. Weirdly enough, Vernon already feels the urge to squish his cheeks and kiss him until both boys nearly suffocate.

On the other hand, the one to the right fired up a feeling of fierce protectiveness in Vernon that he’s only ever felt with Sofia. The boy’s wearing a white shirt and a thin white jacket. His white jeans seems to hug his legs, and, as much as Vernon tries to resist a staring at them, his thighs seemed solid and strong. His right ear had one simple piercing on it, and his sharp features seemed to create an aura of charisma that was amplified by the earring he had on. He was also pouting, more worried than relief, making Vernon want to protect the boy from the world. 

Vernon roughly remembers Jisoo calling this feeling “gay panic.”

Actually, it’s more like “gay shutdown.”

“—are you okay?” Vernon snaps out of his thoughts. Refocusing on the boy with chubby cheeks, Vernon asks sheepishly.  
“Sorry, can you repeat that?” The boy with the earring giggles, and Vernon thinks even faeries would be jealous.   
“Awww, Seungkwan hyung’s already got a fanboy.”  
“Ya shut up you baby, he’s groggy and unresponsive because he just fainted, not because he was staring at me.” Actually—

“Anyways!” Earring boy—Chan, was it?—quickly starts, “since you’re awake now, lemme ask you something.” Vernon gulps but nods shakily anyways.  
“Shoot.”  
“Do you remember us?”

Scrounging up his memory, Vernon traces the events of yesterday. If the familiars he was summoning had been wizards, they surely must have had human forms. Upon closer inspection, Vernon notices that Chan looked distinctly like an otter, while Seungkwan had the cheeks of a quokka. Realizing what this meant, Vernon smiles.  
“Of course I remember you guys.”

-

Vernon should have expected this. 

He doesn’t understand why he was so surprised when he saw it. After all, they WERE familiars and familiars have animal forms. But seeing the two boys on his bed morph into animals at a blink of eye to snuggle with him has him surprised, panicking and ecstatically happy. Chan sleeps on his hand, and Vernon pets Seungkwan with his other hand. According to Seungkwan the Health Magic expert, Vernon was to stay in bed for the next 6 hours. Chan suggested cuddling, and Seungkwan scolded him because Vernon needs as much of his body unbothered as possible. So that’s how they arrived at this position.

To be honest, Vernon is NOT complaining whatsoever. 

They lay there for a while, until Seungkwan morphs back into a human and smiles.  
“You’re discharged. Now go take a shower you smelly piece of turnip.” Vernon rolls his eyes and mock salutes.  
“Yes sir.” Seungkwan chucks a pillow at him and Vernon laughs as he scampered out. The hot water on his body felt nice, but Vernon went as fast as he could, preferring to spend time with his incredibly cute yet hot childhood best friends. As he pulls a shirt over his body, Vernon notices a mark on his side and smiles. Familiar marks were beautiful in his opinion and this one was no different. Three roses, pink, blue and green, all lightly coloured and interwoven. They look like a blooming bouquet on Vernon’s side and he can’t help but trace his finger over it. 

A loud bang interrupts his time and Vernon hurriedly puts his hoodie on to check out the commotions. Coming back to his room, he sees Jisoo laying on the floor, Seungcheol sitting to one side, worried. Seungkwan and Chan were casting a spell over Jisoo and he woke up a few moments later. Wait a second, why is Seungkwan and Chan in human forms? They’re gonna get caught and—

“Hey Vern, can you come with me for a second.” Vernon jumps. Jisoo has one hand over his shoulder and leads him away. Chan and Seungkwan are avidly chatting with Seungcheol, still sitting on the floor. Vernon gulps. This is gonna be a long day.

-

“—so you’re telling me that you now have two wizards-turned-familiars who is maybe hunted by the strongest wizard of our time, but you’re not going to tell your parents, who are fully capable and powerful witches with adequate protection.” Jisoo summarizes, humming as he sips on his latte. Vernon nods sheepishly. Jisoo smiles.  
“Good choice. Your parents are obligated to turn them in.” Getting up, Jisoo offers to pay. Vernon shakes his head and puts a few bills down on the table and then getting up to leave too.

“Please don’t tell anyone hyung.” Jisoo laughs.  
“Of course not. Although you know Hannie’s gonna freak.” Vernon raises his eyebrow.  
“Hyung’s in town?” Jisoo smiles.  
“Yeah, Cheol just told me he was coming yesterday. Apparently he transferred over to our school.”  
“And you guys have already offered to house him in you extra big dorm.” Vernon narrows his eyes and stops walking.  
“Please try to keep it down then. You guys are loud enough already.” 

-

Vernon smiles to himself as he clicks the contact on his computer. The weight on his shoulder shifts slightly as Chan’s otter form hangs off his hoodie, fast asleep. Seungkwan helps him and takes the younger in his hands. Vernon smiles softly. Seeing as the time spent the grimoire halted Chan and Seungkwan’s aging, they’ve decided to go with the age they were when they became drawings. Sadly for Chan, this meant he had two elder hyung’s while Seungkwan and Vernon were the same age.

_Chiring Chiring _

The computer sounded as the connection was being made. Seungkwan leans on Vernon’s arm, and to say Vernon didn’t feel his heart clench is an understatement. A few moments later, a grainy video feed appeared.  
“Oppa! How are you?” Vernon smiles.  
“Hey Sofia, I’m good. What’s up?” Sofia smiled.  
“The usual. Wonwoo-oppa came by the other day with my birthday present! It’s so late though.” She ended with a giggle. Vernon laughs with her and feels content. They chat for a bit more, Sofia seemingly oblivious to the human being on his arm and an otter between them. Finally Vernon springs the question.  
“Hey Sofe, where’d you get the grimoire?” Sofia bit her lip. Looking around his room Vernon brings the book over and holds it up. Sofia finally speaks up then.

“I don’t know. Wonwoo-oppa had his familiar bring it to me. I found his cat, Junhui in my room one day and he guided me through the book. From what I heard, Wonwoo oppa was on routine inspection of the neighbourhood. He came to Woojin-ssi’s home and saw the grimoire. Apparently, Woojin was trying to destroy it. Oppa snuck into his house the night after and stole the book after. According to what Woojin-ssi said at the last party, he thinks the book in destroyed. Junhui gave me a note from Wonwoo oppa with the story. When I saw the drawings, I knew that Wonwoo hyung wanted to give it to you. So I snuck out and sent it, seeing as Wonwoo-hyung is still not allowed near the post office after the last incident.” Vernon chuckles at the memory of Wonwoo and the post office.   
“Did you figure it out oppa?” Vernon takes a deep breath and taps Seungkwan on the arm. The boy understands, and pushes himself up to be in the center of the frame. He cradles sleeping Chan in his arms and holds the otter up for Sofia to see.  
“Nice to meet you.” Sofia smiles.  
“Nice to meet you too!”

-

Vernon lets out a sigh. He leans backwards on his chair, brain in overdrive because he can’t understand transfiguration for animals. The wizard feels soft breathing along his neck as he quickly deciphers that Chan is reading over his shoulder.  
“Stuck hyung?” Chan teases. Vernon rolled his eyes.  
“Are you here to help me or bother me?” Chan laughs.  
“I mastered Shapeshifting in a week, this is easy,” Chan pulls Vernon down to the carpet, “so listen up.” Chuckling, Vernon relents and listens as Chan becomes his tutor.

Somewhere along the night, Vernon finds his homework done, his knowledge of Transfiguration a little less empty and himself being snuggled by Chan. Seungkwan had apparently snuck off in human form to buy some snacks, and left Chan and Vernon at home. Vernon smiles to himself. chan rested his head on Vernon’s chest, arms and legs tucked in or wrapped around the elder’s body. Vernon plays with the familiar’s hair, pressing their bodies as close together as he could without his heart threatening to ram itself out of his chest. The half American starts hearing soft snores and wraps his other arm around Chan. Pulling him closer to his chest, Vernon feels a weird feeling pooling at the pit of his stomach. He ignores it, prompting to cuddle with Chan instead.

-

“Hey Vern, it’s birch, not spruce.” Vernon looks up from his grimoire, making a confused face at Seungkwan.  
“It says spruce here though?”  
“Spruce blocks magic, birch deflects magic. It’ll be more effective, trust me.” Vernon makes a noise of agreement and gets to work to replace the wood material. Seungkwan watches him like a hawk, pointing out mistakes and giving suggestions every now and then. The contraption on Vernon’s desk resembles an arm bracelet, the jewels on the side glowing a green hue, signalling that they’re pure enough to use in infusion. At some point, the tinkerer moves to his floor with the contraption.

“Need help?” Seungkwan offers. Vernon nods, handing him a pair of tongs to slide emeralds into. Emeralds, Vernon thinks as he works silently with Seungkwan, a jewel with protective energy. The more emotions it gathers, the stronger the shield it projects.   
“Ready for infusion?” Seungkwan asks after they finish. Vernon looks at it, pursing his lips.  
“Yeah. I think it’s okay without the strap for now.” He says finally. Chan was out to buy a strap for Vernon’s ‘wand’ anyways. The wizard draws his ritual circle around the specialized wand and lights it on fire. Manipulating the strands of fire, he infuses his mind with the weapon while simultaneously amplifying its healing aura. When he’s done, Vernon immediately feels tired. He yawns loudly and Seungkwan chuckles at his bonded.   
“Okay sleepyhead, head to bed, I’ll finish the rest for you.” Vernon whines.  
“But it’s my wand.”  
“It’s literally just polishing, I’ll do it for you, in return for you sharpening my rapier.” Vernon looks as if he was about to argue but gives up. Seungkwan brings out the polishing kit and gets to work as Vernon plops himself on his bed. He quickly falls asleep, completely missing the longing gaze Seungkwan gives him. Seungkwan sighs, and goes back to work, taking extra care in the task at hand. After all, if he was to be working alongside Vernon, the boy better have good control over his magic. 

Or really, Seungkwan thinks, you don’t want him to get hurt. Ever.

-

“I told you to start wearing a scarf Channie. You were bound to catch a cold.” Seungkwan chastises. Chan sneezes, his entire chest heaving as a coughing fit follows. Vernon watches silently, patting the younger’s back to help him get it out. Seungkwan pulls a bowl of ginseng soup out and starts trying to feed Chan.  
“Eat. You’ll feel better.” Seungkwan smiles. Chan silently ate. Inhaled, more like, but either way it went down and is hopefully staying down.  
“Did you cook it or magic it?” Vernon asks nonchalantly, putting Chan down on his bed. Seungkwan fakes a gasp.  
“I did all that work just to be doubted? Unbelievable.” Vernon rolls his eyes. Seungkwan helps Chan morph back into an otter and lies down with him. Vernon picks up the cute animal in his arms and sets them on the second pillow he took from his non-existent roommate. Lately, Vernon’s feeling extremely grateful he doesn’t have a roommate. 

“Hey Nonie, get a wet towel for him.” Vernon nods, leaving to get the item. He comes back to see Chan back in human form, magic supplies to low to maintain the other warmer state. He lays the towel over Chan’s forehead and moves the boy to lie belly up. Seungkwan sits up and moves to the bed on the other side of the room. Vernon joins him later, and sees Seungkwan creasing his brows in worry. The taller laughs, pulling Seungkwan into a tight hug.  
“Stop worrying so much Kwannie, he’s not your boyfriend.” Vernon teases. Seungkwan mumbles a response, but Vernon can immediately tell what it is.  
“What if he was?”

With a sickening crack, Vernon feels his heart break in half.

-

“Chan, stay down.” Vernon hisses. A defiant squeak rings from his bag as the poor wizard tries to silent his familiar. Chan insisted on coming to class with him today the moment Vernon told the younger they were studying aquatic creatures today.  
“I’m an aquatic creature,” he had explained, “I deserve to at least attend this class.” Chan said while pulling his best puppy dog eyes.

Name someone who can resist that, Vernon’ll wait.

“Chan, you’re going to attract everyone’s attention.” Chan huffs. He chitters quietly, and Vernon rolls his eyes.  
“Just because the others have familiars with them doesn’t mean they’re shouting their presence to the world—“ A bird of paradise and its bonded walks by, strutting in a ridiculously flamboyant outfit.  
“—never mind.” Vernon finishes quietly. He can hear Chan snickering and relents as he lets the little otter out of his bag.  
“Woah! Is that your familiar?” Vernon turns around to find Seokmin, a friend he made due to their abundance of classes together, this due to the fact that Seokmin had taken a gap year. Seokmin’s familiar, Minghao the wolf pup, lifts his head up at the sight of the new familiar. Chan practically bounces over to Minghao, the latter sniffing down Chan. Apparently, Chan passed the Minghao test, as the wolf immediately starts losing at the otter’s fur affectionately.  
“The fact that your familiar passed the Minghao test before I, his bonded, did is kind of insulting.” Vernon laughs.   
“What can I say, Chan is hard to resist.”

If Seokmin paid closer attention, he could almost hear the bitter edge to Hansol’s voice.

-

“Hey—“ Vernon plops down on Jisoo’s bed, effectively silencing the elder. Seungcheol and Jeonghan has classes and weren’t there with their boyfriend, so Jisoo had called Vernon over to hang out. Jisoo laughs at his friend’s antics.  
“How’s Kwannie and Channie?” Vernon makes an indecipherable noise. Jisoo chuckles.  
“I asked for a coherent answer.”  
“Well you’re not getting one.” Vernon snaps. Jisoo widens his eyes in surprise at the sudden bite. Carefully moving to the boy, Jisoo pats Vernon’s head.  
“You okay?” Vernon sighs.  
“Yeah it’s just,” he starts, looking up at Jisoo and decides that if he’s ever gonna talk about his problem, Jisoo will at least be able to relate. Taking in a deep breath, Vernon whispers.  
“How do you tell someone you’re in love with them?” 

Jisoo immediately understands, wrapping his arms around the younger boy, trying to comfort him. Vernon feels his years well up and chokes out a sob.  
“Is it Chan? Or Seungkwan?” Jisoo asks tentatively. Then very carefully,  
“Or is it both?”  
Vernon bursts into tears.   
“Th-they’re dating too! I-It’s fucking pathetic and I can’t just accept that and I’ve been avoiding them but it hurts so fucking much. Why does it hurt so much hyung?” Jisoo stays silent, letting the half American cry on his shoulder. Grasping both of Vernon’s shoulder, Jisoo forces the younger to look at him. Through his tears, Vernon looks up.

“You know how me, Cheol and Han got together?” The elder starts. Vernon shakes his head, for he only know part of the story. Jisoo starts talking again.  
“It was at a summer camp. Cheol and Han has both been dating for a while, and I felt the exact same thing as you did when I found out. They had befriended me and tried to include in as many things they did as possible. When I started avoiding them, Cheol cornered me and forced the answer out. He took me to Han after, and we had this big long talk where I realized they felt somewhat of a spark for me too. Now we’re here, and I couldn’t be happier.” Vernon sniffles. As touching as that was, Jisoo deserved the two people he ended up with. Vernon wasn’t sure about his case though. Jisoo continues.  
“It doesn’t matter what the answer is Vern. Tell them. Let them know and at least the pain will hurt less.”

At this point, Vernon’s pretty sure the universe is out to make him feel more pain.

-

“You should come home more often son.” Vernon looks away from the sight in front of his eyes. He meets eyes with his mother and shrugs.  
“School’s busy mom, I can’t visit every weekend.” His mother purses her lips and ruffles his hair.  
“I still miss you though.” Vernon preens under the attention. He brings his gaze back to the yard. His mom’s familiar, a dog named Mingyu, was playing with Seungkwan. The two had originally been hostile towards each other, but it seems Seungkwan had warmed up to the canine.  
“Sofia told me what happened.” Vernon turns towards his mom and panicked. She just laughed and patted his hair.  
“Don’t worry, your dad and I are going to be the ones to keep an eye on you. But I trust that you’ll keep out of trouble?” Vernon lights up in joy and nods.  
“We’ll be fine mom.”

“Oppa! Chan-oppa is bullying me~” Vernon sighs and turns around. Sofia is hanging of the couch, face twisted in a pout.  
“Am not! These are my Pockys!” Chan shouts back, all defensively while clutching his bag of stick biscuits to his chest. Vernon sighs again and rolls his eyes.  
“Sofia, they’re his, and he doesn’t have to share it,” Sofia pouts even more, while Chan grins happily.  
“But Chan,” Vernon smirks, “don’t be selfish, there’s plenty.” A look of utter betrayal flashes across Chan’s face as Sofia tackles Vernon in a joyful hug. Chan whines and reluctantly hands over a few sticks.  
“Are you sure he’s only one year younger than you?” His mom whispers. Vernon nods.  
“And you haven’t even met Seungkwan yet.”

“Oppa.” Vernon looks up, putting his book aside. Sofia is laying on his arm, reading over his shoulder as Vernon hyper focuses on his novel.  
“Yeah?” He replies. Sofia cocks her head at Seungkwan’s and Chan’s direction, where they’re being polite and proper little shits around Vernon’s father. Vernon picks up a glass of water and takes a sip.  
“Do you have a crush on them?”  
The wizard then promptly spat his water out. Sofia laughs.  
“So you do.”  
“Am I that obvious?” Sofia smiles knowingly.  
“Nah, but you’re my older bro, it’s intuition.”

Sibling intuition is powerful, and the bond is only through blood. Vernon is scared to know how strong familiar intuition will be.

-

“I’m gonna go shower,” Vernon waves offhandedly. Chan and Seungkwan, now in human form, has collapsed on the bed, supposedly asleep. Their bonded smiles fondly, watching them peacefully sleep is his favourite past time, as he’s a simple man who likes to watch beautiful things. Vernon slowly showers, letting the hot water calm him as he once again gets lost in the thoughts and dreams of being able to freely express his love to the familiars. He feels his heart break again, a familiar sense of loneliness and longing washing over the wizard. The water starts to turn cold later, and Vernon relents, stepping out of the shower. He’s endured it this long, what could forever do to him?

“Nonie, I can practically hear you think.” Vernon shifts around his bed. He faces Seungkwan, who had squished up against Vernon’s broad back, and feels Chan whines as he can’t keep staring at Vernon’s face.  
“Then what am I thinking about?” You, his mind supplies, and Chan, about how cute you are, about your big, golden heart, about how much I love you and about how painful it is. Seungkwan smiles and leans upwards to put his and Vernon’s face close together. The younger’s breath hitches, as he feels another pair of lips on his neck. Vernon groans, squirming as he starts panicking. Why are they doing this?

“Sofia told us.” Vernon exhales a sigh of semi-relief. The fact that the two familiars were peppering him in kisses was proof enough, and Vernon gladly accepts all of it. He closes the distance between him and Seungkwan, feeling Chan’s gaze boring into him as he stops his quest of marking Vernon’s neck. When they part for air, Chan tank on Vernon’s body extremely hard, turning him over and capturing his lips in another delicious kiss.

“I love you.” Someone says sometime in the three-way make out session. The other two returns it, saying it as their hearts rebuilds itself and soars. Vernon has a feeling this thing that just started that day is going to be difficult to maintain, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Vernon smiles. All of it will be worth it if he gets to keep these two wonderful boys.

-

“Hey Kwan, have you seen my—“ Vernon starts. Seungkwan looks up from his (Vernon’s) book and meets eyes with his bonded.  
“What?  
“Beautiful.” Vernon blurts out, eyes wide and mouth gaping like a fish. Seungkwan blushes and smiles sheepishly.  
“Thanks.” Vernon grins.  
“Meanwhile I’m gonna be stuck as a fucking animal the entire night.” Chan interrupts, monotone voice laced with bitterness. Vernon laughs.  
“I asked! You didn’t want to come, because Woojin will be there.” Chan pouts.  
“Exactly, so Kwannie-hyung should stay with me too!” Seungkwan rolls his eyes.  
“Or you could come with us and have the cover of an entire party.” Chan bites his lips, seemingly trying to come up with a comeback. Vernon sighs and sits down next to his boyfriends.

“What’s the real reason you don’t wanna come baby?” The American asks gently. Chan sighs and fiddles with the edge of his shirt. He mumbles something impossibly quiet. Seungkwan and his enhanced familiar hearing immediately tells him what it is, and one look at Vernon’s eyes makes the other understand too. Standing up abruptly, Seungkwan starts digging through Vernon’s closet while the latter pulled Chan over to his desk.   
“Where did you put it?”  
“Third shelf to the left.”  
“You have a third shelf?!” Vernon rolls his eyes and opens up a drawer from his desk. He pulls out a box that Sofia had made him buy last time he went out with her. Chan looks around with scared eyes.

“What are you guys doing?” Vernon smirks and opens up the case. Inside reveals a hoard of brushes and make-up. Whispering a quick spell, the make-up kit starts flying around, brushing up little parts of Chan’s face. Seungkwan comes out of the closet and brings with him a newly made black and white suit.   
“Try red.” Vernon yells offhandedly as he fixes Chan’s hair. The younger was preoccupied with staring at his reflection in the mirror with an amazed gape. Seungkwan taps Chan on the shoulder after the last of brushes returns to their kit.   
“I thought I wasn’t going.” Vernon snorts.  
“Because you won’t look good next to us? Bullshit reason, now go change.” Chan flushes and scampers to the walk in closet to change.

“Why do you even have a makeup kit?” Vernon turns around and shrugs.  
“Sofia said ‘for emergencies.’ This is an emergency.” Seungkwan rolls his eyes for the billionth time that day. Thankfully, Chan comes out right in time to save his bonded.  
“What do you think?” 

The chances of Seungkwan and Vernon still thinking coherently is laughable. As if they were a hive mind, Seungkwan and Vernon both sucked in a sharp breath a the same time and breathed,  
“Ethereal.” Chan flushes the same shade as his suit and tries to hide. Vernon immediately stands up and comes over to grab Chan’s delicate hand. Seungkwan glides over to Vernon’s desk to pick up a few items as Vernon gently lowers the younger’s hands. He places a soft kiss onto the shorter’s lips and smiles.  
“You’re beautiful Channie, don’t ever think otherwise. Seungkwan hooks a pair of dangly silver earrings on Chan’s ears and kisses his boyfriend.  
“Let’s go, we’re gonna be late.”

-

By the time Vernon and his boyfriends reach the ballroom, the party’s barely started. They arrive just in time for the big guest announcements for any guests of the evening that arrived semi-early. Vernon tries to sneak past the announcer and his booming voice, but ultimately fails.  
“Once at a time gentlemen, there’s no rush.” The announcer smiles. There’s a rush to get away from this. Vernon scoffs internally.

“Chwe Hansol and his guests, Boo Seungkwan and Lee Chan.” At the mention of his name, everyone in the room turns towards Vernon. There are advantages to having famous parents. There are also disadvantages. As he walks down the stairs, he feels Seungkwan and Chan semi-panic behind him as they’ve never done this before. He gulps, hoping nothing bad will happen. As long as they make it past this part, the two can pretty much hide for the rest of the—

“Oh my god, look at that guy. He’s so hot.”  
“Which one? They’re both so handsome.”  
“Right? Woah, Chwe only knows how to make friends with handsome people!”  
“I reckon I could score a dance with the one in red. He looks like a good dancer.” Vernon looks around. A bunch of guests were whispering and gasping in awe. He’ll take that as a ‘they didn’t mess up.’ Summoning up his courage, Vernon finally turns his head to the stairs—

—and nearly faints.   
“Fuck.” Vernon swears under his breath. His expression while walking down the stairs was a poker face, not usually one to make girls swoon in a gaze. Chan had other ideas it seems.  
“You’re staring.” Seungkwan interjects. Like Vernon, he had simply walked down. The only difference was a soft smile but Chan.  
“He looks a celebrity, what the fuck.” Vernon swears again. Laughing, Seungkwan swats his arm.  
“Can you believe this kid was afraid he would look like trash next to us.” Vernon scoffs and replies.  
“If anything, it’s the other way around.”

Chan continues his path downwards, playful gaze and smirk accented by every click of his shoes on the steps. The entire room is nearly silent, and the moment Chan reaches the bottom, he gets bombarded with flirting. An ugly feeling pools at the bottom of Vernon’s stomach. Creasing his brows slightly and glaring at the girls surrounding his boyfriend, Vernon pushes through the crowd.  
“Excuse me.” He says loudly as he grabs Chan’s wrist. Pulling him away from the crowd, Vernon swings an arm around the younger.  
“You look like you’re jealous Nonie.” Seungkwan comments with amusement. Vernon huffs as Chan giggles, his charismatic facade breaking.

“So what if I am, he’s my boyfriend.” Vernon grumbles.  
“Mine too y’know.” Chan rolls his eyes and playfully pushes his hyung.  
“I belong to the both of you, shut up.” He says softly as he changes back into Charisma-Chan. He holds his hand out to the two of them.  
“May I have this dance with you?” He asks innocently. Vernon replies with an “I don’t dance” at the same time Seungkwan says “I was wondering when you’d ask.” Grinning, Vernon shoos them.  
“Go then, I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

-

“Hey Vern.” Vernon widens his eyes and whirls around.  
“Wonwoo-hyung!” Wonwoo chuckles as he gets tackled in a large hug. Junhui meows for attention and Vernon reaches over to pet the beautiful animal.  
“Why are you here hyung? You almost never come around for parties.” Wonwoo smiles sadly.  
“Because I bring bad news.” Vernon jumps to alert. Wonwoo sighs and pulls out his phone. He shows Vernon a picture of Lee Woojin in the Ashwood Forest. Long ago, an old settlement of people lived there. Due to bad conditions and horrible weather, they’d all died, but their ghosts remained. The extreme hate in the area sprung forth a forest of the Material of Hate. If Woojin is in the area then—

“He’s coming for my familiars.” Vernon growled. Wonwoo nods.  
“I can as fast as I could, but I might be too late.” Suddenly, a large bang came from seemingly nowhere. Vernon looks up at Wonwoo in scared eyes. Wonwoo swears and starts running while transforming into his battle clothes.  
“He’s here.” The deep voiced wizard growled. He offers his hand to Vernon. The younger could only stare at him in disbelief. Gesturing at his restricting clothes and lack of a weapon, Vernon lifts an eyebrow. Wonwoo makes an expression of understanding. Putting his bag down, Wonwoo pulls out Vernon’s arm bracelet.  
“I stopped by your room.” Wonwoo explained. Vernon accepts it gratefully and magics up more comfortable clothes.  
“Time to go Vern, I’ll catch up with you later, I have a bad feeling about something.” Wonwoo ends as he teleports away. Another loud bang echoes and Vernon starts running.

He prays he isn’t too late.

-

“—GET OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU LITTLE PIECES OF SHIT!” A scream bellows. Vernon looks up in time to see Chan teleport away from another swing of Woojin’s flail. Seungkwan takes up his spot and jabs at him with his rapier. Woojin skillfully dodges every jab and manages to land a hit on Seungkwan. He backs off and joins Chan. Everyone in the crowd watches helplessly, as a part of the party’s rules were no weapons. Vernon runs as fast as he could, the crowd noticing him and parting for the wizard to pass. Vernon sees Woojin notice him right as the latter fired a large fire bolt in his direction. Pulling out his shield, Vernon blocks the fire bolt. As the smoke clears, he lowers the shield and stares the powerful wizard down. Woojin threw another bolt at Vernon when the American simply stood there. 

As the bolt nears, people screamed for him to move, and Vernon only smirks. He opens up a portal mid collision and slips away. He gives himself a shield and slips between the different layers of reality, manipulating the strands of magic surrounding Woojin. The wizard gets what’s happening and swings around wildly, Vernon barely dodges the flail hits, as it’s enchanted to pass through all dimensions. He gathers up all the magic strands he could and fills his weapon up, absorbing the excess magic thrown around wildly by Woojin. Woojin must have figured out a plan though, as he stopped flailing. He turns to Chan and Seungkwan, the younger tending to his lover’s nasty wound. Seungkwan’s healing magic was trying its best, and it engrossed both of their attention. Vernon finally realized what Woojin was going to do and screams into the empty space of the 4th dimension. He moves out of dimensions as fast as possible, clawing at the very fabric of reality to come back faster. Woojin holds his flail up and channels energy into it. Vernon closes his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. No, it can’t end like this, he doesn’t want it too. Pushing all of his remaining energy into a last portal, Vernon pops out and brandishes his shield—

—just in time to get hit full force by one of the most powerful beams of magic humanity has seen. Vernon channels all of the gathered energy into the shield, praying it’ll hold. He feels his arms grow weaker though, and soon he feels like he’ll collapse. A steady hand grips his shoulder and another covers his hand on the shield. He doesn’t need to look to see who it is. He feels the shield strengthening and start reflecting some of the damage. He feels a burst of energy as he takes a step forwards. gritting his teeth to the point where it feels like it was going to crack, Vernon channels everything he has and rotates the energy bean towards Woojin. With a shout of pure determination, Vernon pushes the beam back and adds on Chan’s and Seungkwan’s magic. He feels his magic circuits straining, and it was about to burst. At that moment, Chan tears his hand off it and together, Chan and Seungkwan channels their strained circuits in instead. After an eternity of Vernon screaming and trying to make it back, the beam of energy finally fades and Chan and Seungkwan lowers the shield.

That hurts. Vernon widens his eyes at the voice in his head. Oh no, I think we did it for too long, the bond is complete. Vernon scrunches his eyebrows. Seungkwan looks at him and grins. Don’t you remember what happens with shared magic circuits? Vernon scours his brain and tries to remember. Then it hits him.  
“Telepathy.” He breathes. Seungkwan and Chan smiles. In that moment, all Vernon could feel is pure bliss and happiness. He tackles the other two in a hug and covers Seungkwan’s and Chan’s face in kisses. He couldn’t care less if this meant everyone in the area could tell what their relationship was, he was just so goddamn happy. 

“Y-you will never win.” Vernon looks down and sees the crippled state of Lee Woojin. He held a button in one hand and had a menacingly evil smile on his face. Vernon looks at him carefully before realizing what was going to happen. Woojin presses down on the button as Vernon dived for it. A click goes off and Vernon closes his eyes, bracing himself—

—But nothing happened.   
“WHAT?!” Woojin bellowed. Vernon was confused too. Why did nothing happen?  
“Looking for this?” A deep voice chuckled. Vernon looked up and saw a gratifying sight. Wonwoo smirks and holds his hand up. In it was a long strand of disarmed magic bombs, all beeping red as the button tried to send it signals. In a cool manner, Wonwoo walked over and dropped the bombs and picked Woojin up by the shirt. He then proceeded to punch the guy in the face. Vernon pouted.

He wanted to be the one to do it.

-

“—so you’re telling me that you know Jeon Wonwoo, mysterious vigilante and one of the only wizards who can match Lee Woojin in a fight, and decided not to mention it?” Vernon asks in surprise. Seungkwan shrugs.  
“He used to train with us. Another wizard with too many circuits y’know?” Chan chimed in. Vernon sighed. Seungkwan chuckles and pats Vernon on the back. The latter gives him a glare.  
“Do you know how much I was worrying over how I was to introduce him to you? Like, “Hey! Look at his guy, he’s a wanted vigilante and a close friend. Say hi!” isn’t gonna work!” Seungkwan laughs. For the first time, he finally speaks up.  
“Well, how were we to know your family shelters him from time to time? And you’re blaming us for not mentioning it?” Vernon grumbles.

“I hate it when you’re right.” Chan’s giggles and places a kiss on Vernon’s cheek.  
“C’mon, don’t be sad hyung. That’s all in the past now.” Vernon smiles a little and ruffles Chan’s hair.  
“Okay, fine.” Seungkwan laughs again and Vernon gives him a questioning ‘What?’   
“You’re so whipped.” Vernon chuckles.  
“You’re one to talk Boo Seungkwan.” Seungkwan smiles in return and presses a kiss against Vernon’s lips.  
“That’s okay, it’s perfectly normal to be whipped for Chan.” Chan blushes and swats at Seungkwan.  
“What’s the difference between being whipped and being in love anyways?” Chan muses. Vernon grins and squeezes Chan in a hug. He moves his hands upwards and punches down on the younger’s cheeks, earning a cute whine.  
“That’s being whipped.” Seungkwan supplies. Vernon nods in agreement and kisses Chan’s lips with passion. Seungkwan chuckles and joins him.

“And this is love.”

**Author's Note:**

> And they lived happily ever after.
> 
> There is a severe lack of Verkwanchan and I’m severely dissatisfied. Pure uwu deserves to be loved!!! Now let’s give them love!!!


End file.
